There is some great locally crafted root beer in Colorado

We have done our share of beer tasting around the country, and Colorado has some great establishments for doing just that. But there are also a lot of places for root beer tasting as well. Melissa is not so much into root beer, but I have absolutely loved root beer since my childhood back in Brooklyn and sitting at the counters of the old luncheonettes.

My grandparents had owned a luncheonette in Borough Park, Brooklyn where black and white sodas, egg creams, and root beer floats were all the rage. And my dad was an expert at making all of them, and he made me a root beer connoisseur of sorts. So while I don’t drink soda, any chance to have a good, homemade root beer, I jump at it.

I was never big on bottled or canned root beer. If I HAD to make a choice, my all-time favorite was a brand called Barrelhead. I haven’t seen it in years. I believe it stopped production in the 1990’s. But you can always find A&W, Barq’s, Mug, Hires, and IBC in the supermarkets. If I absolutely have to, I will drink Mug. But none of the store brands are exactly enticing.

I was enticed by a lot of the claims made online by the people posting about how good some of the root beer in the State of Colorado fared…but a lot of the top-rated places were more than three hours away. We are never adverse to the drive, but we decided to make it a weekend road trip, no more than an hour in any direction from home.

We found a site that listed the places that actually craft root beer…allegedly. Some would turn out to be not exactly as advertised. But what we did experience was fun. I guess, though, I am not used to consuming so much sugar in one day.

On Saturday we went south and west to Golden, Idaho Springs, and back to Golden.

Old Crow Antiques and Root Beer Bar

17120 W. Colfax Avenue, Golden, Colorado (in a strip mall)

The place is deceiving as it is in a modern-looking strip mall right across the parking lot from a hotel, not far off of I-70. As it clearly states in its name, it is an antique place with a root beer “bar” along with it. We were immediately impressed with the antique mall because it housed over 60 individual booths and the prices were a lot more reasonable than we have seen anywhere else. Although we made a purchase, we weren’t there for the antiques and vintage items, we were there for the root beer.

The “bar” serves up samples of root beer. Unfortunately, there was only one root beer to sample the day were there, and that was Rocky Mountain Soda root beer. When researching local root beer, Rocky Mountain Soda came up as one of the top root beers as rated by a lot of people, however, there is no place to get it off the tap. Although locally crafted in Denver, there is no tour, and no place to actually do a tasting on site. It merely distributes for local retail consumption.

The Root Beer Bar, though, had over 50 varieties of root beer in the bottle in the refrigerated case for purchase. I purchased four bottles, and opened one – Brownie Caramel Cream – to try along with the Rocky Mountain Soda, while snacking on a pretzel. The Rocky Mountain Soda was good…but I really liked the distinct taste of the Brownie Caramel Cream better. Melissa agreed…but she didn’t like the Rocky Mountain Soda at all.

Old Crows Antiques and Root Beer Bar is worth the trip for both the vintage “stuff” and root beer. We’ll be heading back for either an end table or a sarsaparilla.

Tommyknocker Brewery & Pub

1401 Miner Street, Idaho Springs, Colorado

Tommyknocker was established in 1994, but there was an ownership dispute over the course of the last decade, following the passing of one of the founders, Tim Lenahan. Long-time brewer Steve Indrehus runs the establishment.

Tommyknocker always came up when searching for root beer online. It is an old western style restaurant and saloon (brewery) right on the main drag and it is very family and visitor (tourist) friendly. Their menu has some very unique items and we made our way there for lunch and some, what else, root beer.

I had tuna lettuce wraps and Melissa had “award-winning” buffalo chili. We washed it down with a flight of four samples of soda.

The root beer was fairly good. Nothing special. There was an almond flavor soda that Melissa preferred, then there was a citrus soda that was OK, and a strawberry concoction that we both looked at each other and did a Larry David, “Naaaaaahhhh…I don’t think so.” It tasted like cough medicine.

While I would go back for a meal when exploring the quaint downtown of Idaho Springs, I am not so sure I would look to fill up on root beer the next round.

Golden Sweets

1299 Washington Avenue, Golden, Colorado

Since it had gotten later in the day, we decided to head back through Golden and get ourselves a root beer float. We originally stopped at a brewery/pub that came up as having root beer, but while it had other varieties of soda, no root beer. So in a search for root beer in Golden, Golden Sweets appeared. So perhaps an ice cream place would naturally be a good place FOR a root beer float. Eh…

Golden Sweets is a chain that happens to be on the main drag in Golden. And it does quite well because of the foot traffic of the many tourists. However, it doesn’t serve its own ice cream, although it the ice cream is local, as it provides Magill’s made in Lakewood and Sweet Action made in Denver. The big disappointment, however, was the root beer. They made the root beer float with a can of A&W Root Beer taken from the refrigerator filled with soda cans for patrons. Not exactly what we were thinking and what we had pictured.

The ice cream itself wasn’t bad. But as a root beer float…a disappointing dessert.

On Sunday we went east and north…to Louisville and then Fort Collins.

Crystal Springs Brewing Co.

604 Main Street, Louisville, Colorado

This was a great place and definitely one to go back and do a beer tasting. The bartender served us 10 ounces of root beer in Teku glasses, and was the perfect amount for tasting, although Melissa still couldn’t finish. And by the time we got to the next place, I was on my own.

Tom and Kristy Horst are the owners and started the place in 2010 after years of home brewing and some encouragement from their son. They have some very unique beer flavors on the menu that must be sampled. But just the root beer was definitely worth the trip.

Gravity Brewing

1150 Pine Street, Louisville, Colorado

Located in an obscure place behind a strip mall. But well worth the search. This place had the best root beer I tasted all weekend. I downed 16 ounces of a really nice blend. Not too sweet, not too carbonated, it was really, really one of the best I have ever tasted. And that’s shame because the bartender told me that I was actually getting glass of the last of the batch that had been crafted. Gravity Brewing only makes root beer to serve during the month of Dry January. And once it’s consumed, that’s it until the next year.

The owners are John Frazee and Ryan Bowers, two guys who honed their craft (pun intended) while students nearby at the University of Colorado in Boulder. The head brewer is Scott Smith and I gotta talk to him about whipping up another batch of that root beer.

Prost Brewing Company

1510 S. College Avenue, Fort Collins, New Jersey

Located right within the campus of Colorado State University, next to a fraternity house. They probably don’t care about root beer, which would probably explain why Prose doesn’t bother crafting their own. Because although they advertise that they do, in fact, have root beer…what they HAVE is bottles of Rocky Mountain soda root beer. Thankfully we had the New Jersey pizza which helped to quell the disappointment.

Union Bar & Soda Fountain

250 Jefferson Street, Fort Collins, Colorado

Fort Collins is bustling with people and the main drag is a great place to walk around and sample a lot of shops and a lot of eateries. Union Bar & Soda is off on a side street and bit away from the crowded streets. The place is huge with a real modern flare. We found it when searching for…root beer floats. We had wanted to cap off the day with dessert after having the great New Jersey pizza thanks to GFL Pizza.

The menu had a lot to offer, especially in the way of sodas, of course. So I asked about the different flavors, assuming that there were different flavors of root beer, I was informed that the flavors were all of the different sodas that they could contact, simply using flavored syrups. I then asked if the root beer and the vanilla could be mixed to make it a vanilla root beer. The server responded, “No, but we could put vanilla ice cream in there.” Um…a root beer float is USUALLY root beer with vanilla ice cream floating in it. Right?

What did I end up getting? I got a vanilla soda with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Melissa had already had enough of the root beer…she played it safe and got a hot fudge sundae with brownies.

An epic fail on the floats. I love root beer and it was fun traipsing around getting a taste of a number of locally-crafted sodas. I now know how Charlie felt when he drank the Fizzy Lifting Drink. It took me a while to come down off the massive sugar high. But it was worth it…and there is still the other part of the State of Colorado to grab a mug or two. So if you have any suggestions, just let me know.